How Boko Haram imperils Nigeria's future

By Melinda Gates

Updated 6:22 AM ET, Fri May 9, 2014

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Photos:Bring Back Our Girls

'Bring Back Our Girls!' – Weeks after the April 14 kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian girls, worried families and supporters blamed the government for not doing enough to find them. Their cries spread worldwide on social media under the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls. From regular people to celebrities, here are some of the people participating in the movement.

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Photos:Bring Back Our Girls

'Bring Back Our Girls!' – First Lady Michelle Obama tweeted this picture of herself holding a #BringBackOurGirls sign in support of the schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram in Nigeria.

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Photos:Bring Back Our Girls

'Bring Back Our Girls!' – "We hear it like it's not happening in our region so it doesn't concern us but that's not right," says Milliscent Maduagwu from Port Harcourt, Nigeria. "This fight on terrorism is not just the Commander in Chief's and the army, but ours as well!"

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Photos:Bring Back Our Girls

'Bring Back Our Girls!' – "These girls could have been my sisters or worst still my daughter," says Emmanuel Oleabhiele from Doha, Qatar. "My daughter is 6 months old and I fear for her future as a Nigerian."

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Photos:Bring Back Our Girls

'Bring Back Our Girls!' – Malala Yousafzai, the world's most famous advocate for girls' right to education, says that "girls in Nigeria are my sisters." This photo was posted to the @MalalaFund Twitter account on May 6.

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Photos:Bring Back Our Girls

'Bring Back Our Girls!' – Ify Elueze of Bonn, Germany, asks, "How can the world sit and watch?! It is no longer just the responsibility of the Nigerian government, now it is your responsibility and mine!"

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Photos:Bring Back Our Girls

'Bring Back Our Girls!' – British supermodel Cara Delevingne posted this photo on her Instagram account saying, "Everyone help and raise awareness #regram #repost or make your own!"

'Bring Back Our Girls!' – American singer-songwriter Alicia Keys posted this photo on her Instagram account with this message: "I'm so saddened and enraged that these girls are not back where they belong! Safe at home and at school! Safe with their families! Safe to become the incredible leaders and powerful voices they are yet to be."

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Photos:Bring Back Our Girls

'Bring Back Our Girls!' – "You are most likely thinking to yourself, 'What's the point in posting another picture or status to speak about this issue?,"' says Uchenna Mildred Udeh from St. John, New Brunswick. "I can tell you this: it will. Do not underestimate the power of your voice. We have to make this personal."

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Photos:Bring Back Our Girls

'Bring Back Our Girls!' – British singer-songwriter Leona Lewis took a stand to #BringBackOurGirls on her Twitter account on May 7.

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'Bring Back Our Girls!' – "I think it's high time we all start praying for Nigeria and stop complaining," says Lotanna Ugwu from Abuja, Nigeria. "It's only God that can touch the hearts of those who kidnapped the young girls."

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Photos:Bring Back Our Girls

Bring Back Our Girls – Singer Steven Tyler posted this image on both his Twitter and Instagram accounts alonth with the hashtag #RealMenDontBuyGirls.

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Story highlights

Melinda Gates: Kidnapped girls in Nigeria reflect long use of women misused in conflicts

She says group thinks women are merely property; these ideas affect Nigeria's prosperity

Gates: Outcry over girls shows many know empowered women are key to a nation's fortunes

I think of myself as an "impatient optimist." There are times, however, when it's harder to muster the optimism, and the impatience takes over. That's how I felt when I read about the hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by the extremist group Boko Haram to be married off or sold into slavery.

It's difficult to pinpoint the worst aspect of this atrocity. And it's pitiful that this is nothing new. Treating women as spoils or weapons of war has been a common practice for thousands of years.

Boko Haram has sought to justify its actions as consistent with Islamic teachings, and this is an insult. Many influential voices in the Muslim world have rebuked the group's actions. (To cite just one example, Sheik Ahmed el-Tayeb of the Cairo-based Al-Azhar, one of Sunni Islam's most prestigious theological institutions, said the kidnappings "completely contradict Islam and its principles of tolerance.")

It's frustrating that the Nigerian government, despite an intensifying effort to find the girls, has been unable to locate them. And it's horrifying that hundreds of girls, their parents and thousands of their relatives are living each passing moment in escalating fear -- with no idea whether they'll ever see each other again. My heart breaks for these mothers and fathers.

Melinda Gates

But perhaps the most awful part of the story is that Boko Haram stands against a better future for ordinary Nigerians.

Boko Haram is committed to the idea that women are the property of husbands and mere instruments of reproduction. They are particularly opposed to the idea that girls ought to be educated, which is why they target schools.

In fact, when girls are educated and free to pursue their passions, they contribute more to a thriving society. When women have a voice, they raise it to demand a life that is greater than what they've been told they have a right to expect. And these demands change the future for everyone.

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Nigeria has a population of 170 million. Its economy is the largest on the African continent. The future holds nearly boundless promise, as represented, in part, by the fact that the World Economic Forum is meeting in Abuja right now. But if the country's 85 million women and girls don't have the opportunity to seize their potential, then neither will Nigeria.

There are countless examples of places around the world where women and girls are gaining power and autonomy, where the future looks brighter because women and girls are slowly wiping away the old gender norms.

The impressive outpouring of support for the girls -- both within Nigerian communities and around the world -- is an encouraging sign that most people want the version of the future that empowered women and girls will create, not the version that Boko Haram is trying to impose.

It doesn't help the Nigerian schoolgirls now, but thinking about the women and girls everywhere who are strong and getting stronger is one way to maintain some of the optimism that must go along with our collective impatience.